Escaping the Mystery Hotel-Chapter 235: Room 202, Cursed Room - ’The Little Mermaid’ (13)

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 101

Current Location: Floor 2, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 0

- Han Kain

As soon as I stepped out of the room, cold sweat began streaming down my face.

I thought I’d had my fill of grotesque and terrifying experiences from repeatedly entering the Cursed Room, but I never imagined I’d experience turning into a fish!

I was just about to check on Elena, whom I’d last seen—

“Ahh! A-are you okay?”

Elena suddenly collapsed.

Songee, who was right next to her, caught her just in time, but the rest of us, startled, rushed over.

Feeling everyone’s eyes on her, Elena spoke with an embarrassed smile, “I was floating in the water until just a moment ago, so I wasn’t using any strength in my body. I’m fine.”

What kind of “form” did Elena’s body take until just moments ago?

I decided it was better to forget.

I was mentally exhausted.

Everyone looked fatigued as we moved to Room 105, exchanging bits of information along the way.

Apparently, everyone thought the rest of the group, apart from me who escaped last, had died when Kadaru’dah rose from the sea.

Surprisingly, Songee revealed that she had experienced a variety of things even after that.

***

After taking a brief rest in Room 105, everyone gathered around the table to start the meeting. Since Elena had the most information about Room 202, she took the lead in organizing the events in chronological order.

“From now on, let’s refer to Elena in the scenario as the second daughter. The events began with the relationship between the second daughter and Lee Suho. They were lovers and often discussed the future of the island.”

Ahri raised her hand slightly.

“I’ll ask questions as we go. Did Cheongseong Group know about their relationship? It seems strange they didn’t tell us such an important detail.”

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“I believe they didn’t know about her. At least, that’s what Lee Suho told her. However, I think differently. The second daughter wasn’t well-versed in mainland affairs or the dynamics of conglomerate families. In my opinion, their relationship wasn’t something new or fleeting. How could those around them not notice that someone akin to a royal member of the merfolk and the eldest son of a conglomerate were dating for years?”

“That’s a good point. It’s possible that the Cheongseong Group knew and deliberately kept it from us. If so, we need to consider why they hid it. Continue.”

“The second daughter suffered from severe nightmares every day due to the ancestral memories. Seungyub may have heard this from Liringanaur already, but the ‘nightmares’ the Daughters of the Sea God experience far surpass what ordinary people think of as nightmares. They include unfiltered visions of being sliced or fried alive. Sharp observers may have noticed something odd about the island’s leaders—all three Daughters of the Sea God are young.”

Eunsol-noona’s mouth opened slightly.

“Could it be… they don’t survive to old age?”

“Exactly. Most of them lose their sanity before they even reach 40. The previous Daughters of the Sea God, who have already lost their sanity, are currently being cared for in the underground facility of the hospital you visited. Upon learning this, Lee Suho fell into despair. He couldn’t relieve his lover’s suffering, but he at least wanted to share in it.”

“So he decided to become a merfolk?”

“Yes. The Daughters of the Sea God have access to the island’s greatest secret—a cave that holds the means to transform humans into merfolk.”

At this, Elena glanced at me.

Sighing, I spoke up, having directly experienced it, “There was some huge, pale, slug-like creature. From what I saw, letting that thing enter your body turns you into a merfolk.”

“Correct. It’s called Rudah.”

“What kind of creature is it?”

“We don’t know much. The information about Rudah is ancient. It’s a being similar to one of Kadaru’dah’s minions, and inserting it into a body turns a person into a merfolk. That’s all we know.”

“I see.”

At this point, doctor Sanghyun spoke up, “I always found it odd to describe merfolk as a completely separate species from humans.”

“Come to think of it, Sanghyun, you’ve mentioned that before. Why does it seem strange to you?”

“It’s nothing major. On the island, how was the history distorted? Didn’t they claim that the Sea God reshaped the merfolk, who originally lived underwater, into human forms and sent them to the land?”

“That’s how I remember it.”

“It’s a typical case of intelligent design theory—the idea that a great deity created sentient beings. That’s fine, considering this crazy world is full of gods who can crush stars with a flick of a finger. But why would such a great deity recreate merfolk in human form while preserving the flaws of the human body?”

“Flaws?”

“There are too many to list, but examples include blind spots in our vision or susceptibility of herniated discs. These weaknesses arose because the evolutionary process relies heavily on chance. The fact that merfolk still has these flaws suggests they weren’t truly recreated by a god. A truly great deity would have no reason to replicate such defects.”

It was an intriguing and convincing argument.

If the merfolk were indeed the creations of the great Sea God, even if they were modeled after humans, there would be no reason to replicate the flaws of the human body.

All eyes turned back to Elena.

“So, Lee Suho became a merfolk. The problem was what happened next. He reached memories that no previous Daughter of the Sea God had ever accessed—memories from the primordial past, even earlier than the birth of the first merfolk 800 years ago.”

I immediately asked the question that had been on my mind since I first heard this, “What exactly are these memories from before the birth of the first merfolk?”

“We don’t know. Lee Suho claimed to have accessed them, but that’s all we have. Let me finish the story. Upon learning that Lee Suho, now a merfolk, had accessed these unknown memories, Serenade tried to kill him. In the process, the second daughter caused a ‘major incident’ and was sent to a psychiatric hospital as punishment.”

Elena stopped her explanation there.

What happened afterward was something we already knew.

We found Elena in the hospital and woke her.

During the process, she realized Kadaru’dah’s awakening was imminent and took me to the underwater cave to transform me into a merfolk to escape.

Seungyub, who had been quiet until now, asked a question, “Why was Liringanaur exiled? According to her, Serenade didn’t explain anything and just cast her out like a tyrant.”

Elena offered a plausible explanation, “Liringanaur was the youngest of the daughters and was usually excluded from important matters. From the island’s perspective, the second daughter’s ‘major incident’ was an embarrassment. Serenade probably didn’t want to explain such a shameful matter to the youngest.”

To be fair, we sometimes treated Seungyub similarly, so Serenade’s mindset wasn’t hard to understand.

As we were processing Elena’s explanation, Songee added her account, “I’ll tell you what I experienced. I managed to escape and drifted at sea until I ended up on Lee Suho’s yacht. We talked about various things, but the most significant information was that the merfolk had committed grave sins.”

“Grave sins?”

“Yes. The first merfolk 800 years ago committed some kind of sin, and modern merfolk committed another. Oh, and Lee Suho said Serenade was chasing him to kill him.”

“Serenade deceived us. If she was chasing Lee Suho, it means she knew he was alive.”

The first attempt provided a wealth of information.

The curse stemmed from Kadaru’dah’s resurrection by Lee Suho and the ensuing catastrophe.

The merfolk were humans transformed into a different species through a pact with the God of the Deep Sea.

Elena’s sealing was both a punishment from Serenade and a necessary part of the scenario.

But why was she sealed?

The reasons seemed multifaceted: her lie-detection ability, her Calmness and Tranquility*,* and the Blessing of Justice.

It became clear that many individuals had lied to us.

The Cheongseong Group was suspicious, and Serenade’s deception was certain.

If Elena hadn’t been unsealed, we wouldn’t have learned that Lee Suho was alive or uncovered Serenade’s lies.

Yet, gaps in our information still remained.

The two grave sins committed by the merfolk—what were they?

And how could we find Lee Suho, the root of all this chaos?

The room fell silent as everyone pondered.

Eventually, Grandpa spoke, “In the next attempt, we have two tasks: gather the missing information and capture Lee Suho. I assume we’re all on the same page?”

Everyone nodded.

“But we have a serious problem: we don’t have enough time.”

He was right.

During the first attempt, we entered in the morning, met with the chairman of Cheongseong Group, visited the Sea God’s island in the afternoon, talked to Serenade, went underground in the evening, and unsealed Elena past midnight.

Even though we thought we were moving quickly, Kadaru’dah still resurrected the next morning.

“So, searching the island for information or finding Lee Suho is impossible. The Sea God will awaken during that time. We need a faster path.”

A faster path. I had an idea of what Grandpa meant.

“There’s someone who knows the answers to our questions. Serenade, right? We’ll need to—”

Ahri interrupted, “Not force her, but recruit her. I don’t think Serenade is our enemy. Remember, she was chasing Lee Suho. She was likely trying to prevent the Sea God’s awakening. After all, she’s tasked with protecting the island, and the Sea God killed the merfolk as soon as it awakened.”

“Fine, we’ll recruit her. Let’s get the information from Serenade.”

Eunsol-noona asked nervously, “Let’s say we get the missing information from Serenade. How do we find Lee Suho? Even Serenade couldn’t locate him.”

Silence fell again.

In the next attempt, our goals were clear: gather information and find Lee Suho.

Recruiting Serenade seemed feasible, but finding Lee Suho in a single day on an island larger than Jeju?

That seemed nearly impossible.

Songee broke the silence with a seemingly unrelated question, “This might not be relevant, but I’m curious. Ahri?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you know what a Terminator is? You do, /genesisforsaken